10 Most Tornado Prone Cities in the U.S.

So Alabama is the new tornado alley?

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5) Little Rock, AR

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10) Nashville, TN

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I find it odd that Memphis usually manages to miss the brunt of these storms when they pass through.

Fayetteville seems to miss out on them. I know the uplift of the Ozark plateau can change weather patterns right when a front gets to Fayetteville. I guess that's why. Hundreds of miles of plains, and then 30 miles west of Fayetteville a stair step up starts as you enter the plateau.

Also, Mount Kessler is due SW of Fayetteville, and there's another ridge or two out that way. It seems like for a big nader to hit Nam, it would have to basically come straight up Highway 62 and thread the needle at the Fayetteville/Farmington border.

Dan Skoff talks about how it holds up shallow cold air masses or causes rain to fall here instead of out west. It makes sense, because Oklahoma is a lot drier than Arkansas.

We've had them in NWA in the past, but typically in flatter areas like Benton County, and they always tend to be very small.


ETA "thread the needle" like right between those two ridges looking off to the west here:

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8) Atlanta, GA

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Dan Skoff talks about how it holds up shallow cold air masses or causes rain to fall here instead of out west. It makes sense, because Oklahoma is a lot drier than Arkansas.

We've had them in NWA in the past, but typically in flatter areas like Benton County, and they always tend to be very small.

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When I lived in Fayetteville, there were several times that tornadoes were in the area, but never touched down there. I always wondered if the landscape/climate had anything to do with that, not that I was complaining. Tornadoes terrify and fascinate me, though. Love learning about them.

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CatFan81

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I find it odd that Memphis usually manages to miss the brunt of these storms when they pass through.

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It's that pyramid thing they've got going in Memphis.

I agree. They seem to lose momentum going across the river and then pick up steam again on the way to Nashville.

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SEC tops the Big XII again

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Using a radius seems appropriate when determining cities that are most prone" to get hit by a tornado. The cities themselves listed don't always get hit but the areas do. Huntsville has a notorious tornado history. I was born months after the 1974 Super Outbreak where the Tanner area near Huntsville got hit twice by violent tornadoes within 2 hours of each other. The same system destroyed the office my dad worked at. The same areas got nailed on April 27, 2011. There is also an area just northwest of downtown Bham that has been hit by multiple F4/F5 tornados so there is something to cities having well established tornado alleys.